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Revo Uninstaller

2011-09-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

One utility I use all the time is the Revo Uninstaller form VSRevo Group. Revo Uninstaller removes applications from PC's. It does an especially good job of finding the left behind files and registry entries after the application is removed.

Google+Growl

2011-09-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have been setting up a new Macbook Pro and found this nice program Google+Growl by Waffle Software. Google Notifier from Google tells you how many new messages are in your mail folder. This application does visual notifications but Google+Growl integrates these notifications into Growl. Growl displays notifications on OS X from a variety of applications.

2011-07-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Friday I saw a P-51 Thunder Mustang that looked like this one. It flew over my house as it was landing at the Rosamond Skypark

Chrome Speed Theme

2010-12-17T12:59:00.000-08:00

This is a link to the "Speed" (really: Space Shuttle) Chrome browser theme on the Chrome Web Store. This theme was on one of the demo computers used at the Google Live Chrome event on December 7, 20101.

about:chrome Experimental features menu in Chrome.

2010-12-17T10:06:00.000-08:00

I heard about the about:flags menu in Google Chrome on TWIT's December 15 Security Now podcast.

So I have been playing around with the features in this area.

You reach this area by opening a new tab and typing about:flags as the URL.

Here is a screen shot of the about:flags menu in Chrome:

Today in Aerospace History

2010-12-03T09:50:00.001-08:00

Today in Aerospace History: The X-43 was rolled out for the first time.

See my shared Historical Dates in Aviation Google Calendar for more dates.

X-37 Lands at Vandenberg AFB

2010-12-03T09:00:00.001-08:00

Link to KCOY TV showing video from X-37 landing at Vandenberg AFB in California.

Macbook Tink, Clicking,

2010-11-27T19:16:00.000-08:00

I have owned a Apple Macbook Pro since October with no issues except one.

It made funny metallic clicking noises (tink, tink, tink) after the system warmed up.

At first I thought it was the hard drive failing. So I backed up the hard drive.. waiting for doom.

Then I thought it was the Sudden Motion Sensor parking the hard drive.

To read more about the sudden motion sensor see this page on the Apple website. Even after I started and stopped the sudden motion sensor the "tinking" sound was still around.

Then to make sure after I turned off the Sudden Motion Sensor, I booted the Macbook Pro into Windows 7 and it still made the tinking sound. Even booting up it made the tinking sound.

Then I found the "Fix Your Macbook Pro like a Champ" web page.

After I removed the bottom cover of the Macbook Pro and removing the ground connector shown on the website. No more tinking sounds....

Review: Black Horse II Espresso & Bakery in San Luis Obispo

2010-11-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

Here is my review on Yelp for the Black Horse II Espresso & Bakery in San Luis Obispo.

We have driven past the Black Horse II many times on Broad Street and today we decided to give it a try. We have not visited the location on Higuera.

We had a raspberry white chocolate scone and a carrot cake muffin along with the coffee of he day. The scone was yummy and the muffin was moist.

The coffee was good and hot like it should be.

Service was quick with a smile

The Black Horse II has an outdoor patio along with nice indoor seating with a fireplace.

I connected to the free WIFI with my iPhone and it worked well.

Review: Smith Brother's Hobby Center in Lancaster

2010-11-27T09:33:00.000-08:00

We are really lucky to have Smith Brothers Hobby Center in Lancaster!

Please support them.

My review on Yelp for Smith Brother's Hobby Center in Lancaster, CA.

I have been visiting Smith Brother's Hobby Center in Lancaster, CA store even before it was Smith Brothers (when it was Peterson's Hobby Store).

Smith Brothers has a little of everything. Radio Control, Rockets, Models, Toys, Model Railroads, Dioramas and Books.

I look at everything but am most interested in the book section which stocks quite a few aviation oriented books.

My grandson loves this place.

I like to visit Barone's Pizza next door at lunch time and then run over to Smith Brothers next door while I am waiting for my order.

Closed on Monday..

Review: Mondeo San Luis Obispo

2010-11-27T09:22:00.000-08:00

Great location next door to the Barnes and Noble bookstore in downtown SLO.

Service is walk-up with the food delivered to the table.

No complaints on the food. We split a BBQ Chicken Wrap. And we also shared an order of Polenta fries and a bowl of Sweet Potato Chips..

The bathroom was clean.

We would return.

Review: Pizza Solo in San Luis Obispo

2010-11-27T09:12:00.000-08:00

Here is my review on Yelp for Pizza Solo in San Luis Obispo.

Walk up service, but they brought us the food.

Outdoor patio in addition to indoor seating.

We had a Calzone, BBQ Chicken Salad and bread sticks.

All of it was good and we would return another time.

Review: Fat Cat's Cafe in San Luis Obispo

2010-11-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

Restaurant Hopping in San Luis Obispo

Here is my review on Yelp of the Fat Cat's Cafe in San Luis Obispo

We visited the location on Higuera and Santa Rosa for the first time.

Service was slow. The drink order was quick. It took a long time for them to take the meal order.

The food was good. We had french toast and the BLT at lunch time.

We owe them another chance to do better on the service issues.

Review: Cool Cat Cafe

2010-11-27T08:50:00.001-08:00

Here is a link to my short review of the Cool Cat Cafe on Yelp in San Luis Obispo.

The service at the Cool Cat was good. They took the drink and meal orders promptly on each occasion. They checked on us frequently after the meal was delivered after a short wait.

The Cool Cat has an outdoor eating area when the weather is good (most of the time in SLO). The space for a larger group (more then 4) is limited inside. We have arrived to see large groups waiting in the entry for the limited group space.

The food is good. The pastrami sandwich, seasoned french fries, sourdough burger, and onion rings are all good.

F-22 Fatal Crash in Alaska

2010-11-20T13:02:00.001-08:00

Here is the link to the Air Force News Story about the fatal F-22 crash in Alaska.

Data In the Cloud - Dropbox

2010-11-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

I have been using DropBox for free since 2009.

This week I decided to go ahead pay for the the DropBox 50Gb subscription.

If you’re not familiar with DropBox works, here is how it works:

You go to the DropBox website and create a free account and then download the application installer to your computer.

DropBox creates a folder on your computer (in a location you choose) and continually monitors your folder for changes.

Whenever the contents of this folder change, the DropBox application automatically syncs these changes to your account’s folder on the DropBox servers.

At the same time any other computer attached to that DropBox account will have their DropBox folder synced as well.

So far I have used DropBox with Windows XP, Windows 7, OS X, Ubuntu, and on my iPhone. And I have grown to depend on it!

In addition to the basic functionality of syncing files between machines I also use it to sync passwords between machines and to remotely start torrents on my home machine.

I tried to sync my Firefox browser profiles between Windows 7 and OS X on my laptop. Sad to say this was too big a stretch and did not work out so well. Several of my Firefox extensions needed to be re-installed each time I switched operating systems and tried to use the same profile.

First Solar and B-2 Radar Test Range

2010-11-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

Northrop Grumman was handed another defeat in its attempt to stop encroachment near it's Tejon radar test range west of Rosamond California.

Previously wind turbines have moved into the neighborhood and now two solar plants are close to the range. This article in the New York Times discusses the impact wind turbines have on radar.

A proposed plant to be built by Sempra Energy is about eight miles away from Northrop's range. Another proposed solar plant is about the same distance south of Northrop's range in Los Angeles County .

Read here for more about the Tejon RCS Range. Tom Mahood built this great site about radar ranges in the Mojave a decade ago. Thankfully the Howland company maintains the pages from the original site these days.

Another way to look at the range is to watch the National Geographic Channel's special Hitler's Stealth Fighter. This video shows Northrop's range performing RCS testing on a full scale model of the Horton 229 flying wing.

According to an article (subscription required) Wednesday in the Valley Press written by Allison Gatlin, at the meeting of the Kern County Supervisors in Bakersfield, "Northrop Grumman contended that the solar plant could interfere with its Tejon Test Site facility by reflecting or emitting radio waves, increasing the background electromagnetic "clutter" and making its tests less accurate. The company also says the environmental impact report prepared for the project is incomplete in other areas."

Broken iPhone

2010-11-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday Joy dropped her iPhone and cracked the glass touch pad.

So we made an appointment at the Apple Store to have it looked at.

$99 and 10 minutes later the tech at the Apple store had the phone repaired.

I thought we would need to mail it in or switch phones.

After hearing $99, we considered buying a new phone, but decided to wait for the iPhone 5 and Verizon in 2011.

Restless

2010-11-03T16:19:00.001-07:00

"Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of
progress. Show me a thoroughly and satisfied man and I will show you a
failure" -- Thomas Edison

Lessons Learned from SETP Symposium

2010-10-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

I received this summary of list of lessons learned from someone who attended the Society of Experimental Test Pilots Symposium recently held in Anaheim California.

If a test point is not required, reconsider the risk involved - it may be unnecessary risk
Simulated testing is good but it's not everything
Build safety down days & exercises into your schedule
Don't trust modeling or databases when you CAN do your own surveying
Risk is not defined in test cards, processes
Stress the system early
Education & experience make a flight test professional
Control your own data
Perform vigorous checks for code errors
Work toward objectives but be aware of new paths as they open (don't tunnel vision)
Lack of proper documentation increases troubleshooting requirements (expect longer learning curves when there is a lack of documentation)
Don't believe all tribal lore as face value - trust but verify!
Buildup is essential
Data collection - always record if practical!!!
Operations are only as good as procedures/limitations
Challenge if it doesn't make sense - published manuals can be wrong
Weight & Balance reports are often taken for granted
Test worst hazards in the final configuration
Safety systems must be robust
Take time to critically reevaluate the plan when unexpected results occur
Bring engineers and flight testers in early-on in design & test development planning
Can you fly without it? Safety vs. Efficiency
Pick a horse (proven method/process) and ride it
Don't get hornswoggled by the nerds
Beware of being too far out of the box
Better, Faster, Cheaper" - pick two

Rudy's

2010-09-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

Spent the week in San Antonio.

And we made another trip to Rudy's BBQ..

Reaper Crashes near Grey Butte

2010-09-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

Press release from Edwards discussing the MQ-9 Reaper crash near Grey Butte August 31.

The key take aways....

"The crash site is in a sparsely populated area. No property damage or personal injuries have been reported at this time"

Avila Deli

2010-08-22T18:00:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in San Luis Obispo. I had a doctors appointment on Friday near Magic Mountain in Santa Clarita, CA. And after salad bar at Marie Calendar's we drove in my late father's Chevrolet Z-28 SS 35th Anniversary Edition up to SLO.

We went to lunch on Saturday at the Woodstone Marketplace in Avila. The food was great. I had the Cobb salad. The Pizza and Turkey Wrap both looked good as well. The restaurant sits next to the Bob Jones trail and we set on the patio. We then drove down to the pier at Avila and walked out to the end and back. This place deserves another visit...

Crushed Toyota

2010-08-22T13:17:00.000-07:00

On the way up to San Luis Obispo we encountered this accident clean up scene on Highway 166 south of Rock Front ranch. The car which looked like a Prius had gone over the side of the road on Thursday night and down a 300 foot ravine. A tow truck had just winched the car up the hill when we drove by.

New Books this week

2010-08-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

I received two new books this week.

Fire Bombers in Action by Fred Johnsen. This is the first book about air tankers to come out in a long time. Also Mr. Johnson is the current leader of the museum at Edwards AFB. In addition to the book a DVD is also included with videos compiled by Mr. Johnson. The book brought back a lot of memories for me as I worked for Hunot Retardant at Fox Air Tanker base during the late 1980's. I think it is the best book on air-tankers so far. The video is good especially the old 1959 training film from the Forest Service on using air-tankers and the interview with the mars flying boat pilot is also good.

American X&Y Planes: Volume 2: Experimental Aircraft since 1945 by Ken Darling. This book is the second volume in a series that covers American prototype aircraft. The first book covered aircraft prior to 1945. The editing is good but the book suffers from some editing issues. I found the XB-55 twice in the book, I think the first time the XB-55 was listed it should have said XB-47.

Day Trip to San Diego

2010-08-22T11:46:00.001-07:00

I traveled down to San Diego last week for a meeting. We only stayed a day. The hotel I stayed in was real cool. It was called the U.S. Grant and was built in 1910. The hotel is across the street from Horton Plaza.

We ate dinner with friends at the Island Prime restaurant on Harbor Drive. Breakfast was great at the St. Tropez Bakery and Bistro on Broadway Circle. We ended are trip with an early dinner at the Casa Guadalajara in Old Town before heading back to Edwards.

California City

2010-08-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles Times had this story about California City

Tragedy in Las Vegas

2010-08-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

I read this tragic story yesterday in the Antelope Valley Press.

The title link goes to a story on the Las Vegas channel 8 TV station website.

Mr. Erik Scott who graduated from Paraclete High School here in Antelope Valley as well as West Point was shot by three police officers. This occurred in the Costco located in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas.

Erick Scott is the son of Mr. Bill Scott, a former flight test engineer at Edwards and writer for Aviation Week magazine.

Our hearts go out to the Scott family.

F-22 Photos from the Royal International Air Tattoo

2010-08-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

Here are some nice F-22 photos from photographer Slawek Krajniewski.

The link is to his website.

Mr. Krajniewski attended the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford, UK.

2010-08-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

Quote from a flight tester "history is never made with a simulation"

Football is back

2010-08-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

The hall of fame came marks the start of football season for me, so football is back.

We had a great drive back from San Luis Obispo today, so we are back. We witnessed a couple of close calls today on Highway 166, the two-lane that runs between the I5 and Highway 101. One person passed uphill with traffic in the opposite late coming down hill. That person just made it. The second person passed with on-coming traffic already heading right for them. They made it was well.

I was able to get my Macbook working with Air Force email Saturday. When the Snow Leopard version of OS X came out, the CAC card no longer worked

Before I ran Parallels this time to run the CAC in XP, maybe I would give it a shot on Safari.

And low and behold it worked and I was able to access the email using Safari. Also the defense travel system is compatible with the mac as well (the signing application now runs in Java). Several excellent websites exist on how to set your CAC up to work natively with your mac. miliarycac.com is the best site no matter what OS you are running.

Miracles never cease...

I also received this cool book in the mail from Amazon over in SLO:

The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration) by Frank J. O'Brien (Paperback - Jul 12, 2010)

I read the section about the launch abort system modes at breakfast Sunday and the sections about programs P63 and P64 on the lunar module during landing.

CF-18 Crash

2010-07-24T20:38:00.000-07:00

Wow this CF-18 crash in Alberta Canada yesterday reminded me of this Mig-29 crash at Paris

In the Mig-29 video on Y-tube, notice the Beech Starship in the foreground.

U-2 Article in the New York Times

2010-04-03T15:42:00.001-07:00

U-2 Article in the New York Times

Nancy Bergren Retires

2010-04-02T19:14:00.001-07:00

Today I attended Nancy Bergren's retirement at Club Muroc located in Edwards Air Force Base. Nancy was my first boss at Ridley Mission Control Center in 1989. Nancy worked on many cool programs including B-1, B-52, ALCM, ACM, TSSAM, and SRAM. Later she supported the X-32 and X-35 which evolved into the F-35.

Rohmann's Subdue Insourcing

2010-03-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

More info in the link about the in-sourcing lawsuit by Rohmann Services the audio-visual contractor at Edwards AFB

Ejection Seats

2010-03-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

I found this nice site by Kevin Coyne on ejection seats.

X-51

2010-03-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

The Wired Danger room blog had this article on the X-51. The mentioned the mission control room monitoring telemetry at the end of the article.

Lawsuit against Edwards AFB insourcing

2010-03-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

According to the article in the link, a lawsuit has been filed by Rohmann Services against Edwards AFB. The lawsuit seeks to stop the insourcing of the visual services contract at the base.

Remembering Travis

2010-02-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

The link above goes to a website setup to remember Travis Wood.

It includes the information for memorial services in Lancaster California and Phoenix Arizona.

Travis Wood

2010-01-31T08:57:00.000-08:00

I was informed Friday that Travis Wood passed away. I don't have any details of how it happened. I know Travis was a young guy and this news shocked many of us.

I first met Travis Wood when he was a developer on the Structures Analysis Program (SAM). SAM was a system used at the Air Force Flight Test Center to process and display aerostructures data in real-time and post-test.

Travis was a an amazing guy and I was lucky to have known him. Periodically we would talk about his latest amazing adventure. He built and competed in the battle bots robot competition. He was a contestant on I think two reality TV shows. Travis was an amateur radio enthusiast as well. Travis even competed in the DARPA challenge with a autonomous Toyota pickup.

His website "R" Junk Work's shows his projects in more detail.

I want to send my deepest sympathy to Kathy and Travis's kids Garrick and Veronica.

T-50 Stealth Fighter First Flight

2010-01-29T14:19:00.000-08:00

Link to Russian RIANOVSTI news site on T-50 Russian stealth fighter first flight.

America's Role Abroad an Earlier Perspective

2010-01-29T14:15:00.000-08:00

John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State addresses the United States House of Representatives on July 4, 1821:

And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind?

Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.

She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights.

She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own.

She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart.

She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right.

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.

But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force....

She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....

[America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

New Lancaster Blvd Fighter

2010-01-02T13:11:00.000-08:00

The AV Press said the day the City of Lancaster plans to locate a second pole mounted fighter on the South West corner of Lancaster Boulevard and 10th Street West.

Here is the location.

Improving education in spite of the school bureacracy

2009-12-31T10:08:00.000-08:00

This L.A. Times article written by Mr. Mitchell Landsberg detailed how the Wiseburn School District decided to use the chart school process to establish two high schools.

The twist is Wiseburn is an elementary school district. It's schools are known for higher academic standards. Students from this district are supposed to go to Hawthorne High School, which is part of the troubled Centinela Valley Union High School District. Many parents instead send their high schooler's to neighboring districts or private schools.

Wiseburn wanted to set up a "unified" school district, with elementary, middle and high schools. But the Centinela Valley district sued to stop Wiseburn. The argument was Wiseburn lacked an environmental impact statement. So Wiseburn decided to use the charter system to establish charter high schools. According to the article, Centinela Valley is opposing this change, because they claim it would "rob" the district of nearly half its potential revenue from school bonds.

Do you keep sending the funds to organizations that fail or do you fund the organizations that are successful? Why should Centinela keep getting the funding if they suck?

According to the article the Wiseburn charter schools are successful. Successful enough that the schools have received donations from nearby corporations, including Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Chevron, Boeing and Belkin.

Students at the schools learn by producing elaborate projects. Students praise the school for making learning fun. Students in the Engineering Class built roller coasters as the final exams for the course. Engineering is one of the core classes that all students take, combining math and physics.

JIm Harris's passing

2009-12-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

This morning I was saddened to hear about the passing of Jim Harris after he was involved in a traffic collision on Saturday.

The traffic collision occured on Highway 18 west of Sheep Creek Road in Phelan California.

The link to the San Bernardino Sun is above. This story in the Victorville Daily Press from Saturday has more detail about the collision.

I was lucky to have worked with Jim when he was with Symvionics in the 1990's. At that time the Interactive Analysis and Display System (IADS) was under development to support the F-22 flight test program. Jim was one of the leaders on the original IADS development team.

In more recent times Jim worked for the Government at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center where he was part of the Western Aeronautical Test Range leadership team.

I am told that a family member was also injured in this collision but do not have any details.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T09:04:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving

Station Fire

2009-08-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

The glow of the station fire looks visible from Rosamond as it burns north towards Acton.

I am praying the fire will miss the Mt. Wilson Observatory.

The news is saying two L.A. County fire fighters were killed in a roll over accident near Camp 16 south of Acton. 800 ft drop. Camp 16 is a camp used to house inmate fire crews.

Airplane watch: P-2V airtanker flying out of Fox Field toward one of the fires. Also watched the new AW139 helicopter L.A. City fire was flying. In the Navy Proceedings magazine an article was in last months edition saying the AW139 was one option to replace the Coast Guard Dolphin helicopter.

Car watch: Early 70's corvette in Lancaster.

Weather: 102 deg f high, and overcast with smoke from the fires. We had ash falling when we were at Walmart in Lancaster.

Santa Maria Gloom

2009-08-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

I spent the day in Santa Maria Friday overnighting in the Holiday Inn on Broadway Street.

I have stayed in this hotel many times with no complaints. This time was different. My computer could not connect to the free wireless internet was the first problem. And no it was not my computer, because I could use my Verizon Wireless to access the web. Someone reset something because in the morning I could connect to the hotel wireless. No soap was provided by the hotel, so when I went to a local grocery story to get something else I bought bar soap. Finally I suspected the sheets were not changed when the room was cleaned. The sheets were wrinkled like someone had slept in them the night before.

Marriott recently opened a Fairfield Inn accross the street maybe that is the reason things are changing with the Holiday Inn.

The high temp was 71 deg F, and the low was 52 def F. It was overcast all morning before clearing up some in the afternoon.

Cool Airplane sighting: I watched a Erickson Skycrane helicopter flying out of the forward helicopter base on the La Brea fire. I was driving on Highway 166 to Santa Maria Thursday evening.

Cool Car sighting: I passed a very nice restored red 50's Chevrolet pickup while driving on Highway 101.

Single Engine Air Tanker Crash in Nevada

2009-08-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

I posted a link to Inciweb. An excerpt from that page is: "Dave Jamsa as the pilot who was killed yesterday after his single-engine air tanker (SEAT) crashed while flying fire suppression operations on the Hoyt Fire."

The Hoyt fire website on Inciweb is here. And this test is from that page "Six SEATs (Single Engine Air Tanker)were working the fire from the Battle Mountain Air Tanker Base when the crash of Tanker 857 occurred. The pilot was flown by helicopter to medical facilities in Lovelock, Nevada, where he was pronounced dead. NTSB/FAA investigators are on-scene to interview personnel and proceed with their investigation into the SEAT crash."

LAPD Helicopter Crashes at Fox Field

2009-08-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

An LAPD helicopter crashed at Fox Field in Lancaster, CA. The crew was practicing autorotation at the east end of the airport. The crew was hurt in the crash but survived. The Antelope Valley Press story today said that two members of the crew had minor injurys and one member of the crew had moderate injuries.

When I worked as a contractor at Fox Tanker Base in the 1980's, we watched L.A. County Fire Department helicopters perform autorotation training using the eastern parking ramp at the tanker base. This ramp is used to park aircraft overnighting, being maintained, or out of service during major fires. Normally a couple of air tankers are positioned at Fox, but during major fires I have counted as many as 15 aircraft at the base. So the ramp is pretty large.

During autorotation the helicopters engine is disengaged from the main roter system. During an engine failure, this disengagement has to be performed quickly before the roters stop turning. Simultaneously the helicopter needs to be descending so that rotor blades are driven by an upward flow of air through the rotor blades. This is opposite to the normal operation of a helicopter, where air flows downward through the roter blades.

Autorotation is an emergency maneuver that helicopter pilots us to save himself and his passengers. Much as a fighter pilot uses the ejection seat that they have.

The title link goes to Wikipedia's article on autorotation.

Advanced Radar Test Bed

2009-08-12T20:36:00.000-07:00

I found this webpage on the Advanced Radar Test Bed. The web page is hosted on the C-141 Heaven website. The ARTB was used to flight test radar systems before being retired to the Edwards Museum.

Utah

2009-08-02T11:48:00.001-07:00

I spent last week at the 120th meeting of the Range Commanders Council
Telemetry Group in Provo Utah.

Provo is a college town south of Salt Lake City. The town is situated
west of some very large mountains. I stayed at the Marriot downtown.
Much of Provo's downtown is preserved and consists of many small shops
and resturants.
I spent last week at the 120th meeting of the Range Commanders Council
Telemetry Group in Provo Utah.

We ate indian food at the India Palace, burgers at Sammys a burger
joint, and a sandwich at the Hickory Kist deli. Dinner at the hotel
was good, breakfast was not so good.

Everyone was very nice and friendly.

Edwards AFB in Amusement Park's

2009-07-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

The Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park in New Jersey has a ride called the "Parachute Training Center: Edwards AFB" it is described as providing a " breathtaking view of the naturally wooded park from a 25-story-high parachute drop."

Disney's California Adventure park in Anaheim California created an Edwards AFB themed area called Condor Flats. In 2001, the laughingplace.com website interviewed the Disney imagineers that worked on Condor Flats

Temps at Edwards today: High 104 deg F, Low 72 deg F.
Airplane Watch: A 747 flew low over Rosamond CA about 730pm Thursday.
Car Watch: None today...

Cerritos Sheraton

2009-07-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

Weather in Cerritos topped out at about 90 degree's F. In contract Rosamond was blazzing at 104 degree's F.

I spent time in the Cerritos Sheraton this weekend. Cerritos is located at the center of the Los Angeles and Orange Country metropolitan region. We stopped at the Glendal Galleria on the way down and the Northridge Fasion Center and Costco in Santa Clarita on the way back. We parked ourselves by the hotel pool while my wife attended the funeral of a family friend.

Cool Car Watch: Shelby Datona Coupe. We passed this car being trailered on the 605 freeway.

Cool Airplane Watch: None today...

Space Elevator

2009-07-02T08:33:00.001-07:00

This story in the AV press talks about the space elevator games. The power beaming challenge is one of NASA's Centennial Challenges. A helicopter will hover over Rogers dry lake with a 1 kilometer cable. A robot climber powered by a 8Kw laser will scale the cable. 6 teams are competing for a $2 million in prizes

X-51 arrives at Edwards

2009-07-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

The first X-51 to be used for ground tests arrived at Edwards Monday.

Global Hawk Hard Landing Explained

2009-06-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

Maj. Gen. Eichhorn tells the story of the Global Hawk's hard landing at Edwards...

Commentary by Maj. Gen. David Eichhorn
Commander, Air Force Flight Test Center

6/2/2009 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Men and Women of the Air Force Flight Test Center,

Actually, it all started while you were probably watching prime time television or perhaps you were having dinner. You may have even been reading your kids a bedtime story. It started for me at the civ-mil dinner at Club Muroc. We had just gotten our food on Thursday night, 28 May when the Test Wing Commander pulled me aside for a word.

The word was that an aircraft that had been flying for hours had a spoiler malfunction. It was Global Hawk and a spoiler problem is a major problem for that aircraft.

So some of you are asking, what are you talking about? Here it is. Spoilers exist on virtually all modern jet aircraft. Just as the name suggest, they're there to "spoil" the lift of the wings and cause more drag. They're needed so aircraft can slow down and descend efficiently. Modern, very slick aircraft really need spoilers or they will float for a long, long ways just as any glider floats. (Contrast this with the F-4 which "floated" like a brick - now before the Phantom drivers come after me, understand, I loved that aircraft too but engine out, we all agree, it could fly formation with a brick.)

Back to the sick Global Hawk, what to do, what to do? Letting the aircraft land "normally" would result in failure of the landing gear. Why? Because the lack of spoilers would cause the aircraft to touch down too fast and then bounce back into the air. It's the next landing that's extremely nasty. The aircraft would float up and up and then nose over to come back down. The subsequent landing would be hard enough to fail the gear and crunch some very, very expensive sensors on board.

The team at Edwards worked for hours with company engineers in Rancho Bernardo to find some way to safely recover what had never been safely recovered. They decided a lakebed landing was the better way to go. Now this would not be an option with a manned aircraft since the lakebed runways are unlit but the unmanned Global Hawk wouldn't know the difference.

About 11:30 o'clock p.m., to get the aircraft to shed the extra airspeed, it was also decided to shut off the engine. So Global Hawk landed the same way the Shuttle landed on Sunday with no go around capability - dead stick. We committed 100% (all in) to landing for good or ill.

It was a daring plan! It worked! The 452FLTS/UAV CTF did fantastic, as well as the entire 412OG team! What a scramble in the dark to make this all work! Kudos!

Only Edwards could have recovered the aircraft safely that night. The aircraft floated (without spoilers remember) far further than anyone expected. Anywhere else and it would have been past any sort of proper landing service. But not at Edwards and on Rogers Dry Lakebed. It landed about 6 maybe 7 miles down the runway. The right main gear hit an obstacle and was badly damaged, but I must say, I was impressed with how well it withstood the damage. It didn't collapse for several more thousand feet. This saved the sensors. The most expensive part of the aircraft.

So instead of a multi-million dollar mishap, (no threat to life but a lot of money is a lot of money) we are keeping our fingers crossed that this one will be less than a million dollars worth of damage and we gained a wealth of information on how to safely recover the aircraft when this happens again. Priceless!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Edwards is here -- talent tightly coupled with natural resources.

TPS Pilot Memorial Service

2009-06-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Link to a story on the Edwards web page about the memorial service for Test Pilot School T-38 Pilot held about a week ago

Another first flight at Palmdale Plant 42

2009-06-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

The USAF Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft made its first flight at Plant 42.

Global Hawk Hard Landing

2009-06-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

5/29/2009 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- An Edwards RQ-4A UAS made an emergency landing just after midnight here May 28 on Rogers Dry Lake bed, adjacent to the airfield.

The block 20 Global Hawk, AF-9, experienced flight control problems while on a local flight test sortie.

Pilots performed a unique series of flight control maneuvers and managed to land the aircraft on the lakebed.

The RQ-4A sustained damage to its right wing and main landing gear but pilots were able to maintain the UAS's structural integrity and spare its ISR mission systems.

Edwards officials are assessing the damage and have appointed a board of officers to formally investigate the incident.

Aviation Week's ARES Blog also had this story

Mojave Airport Video

2009-05-31T22:46:00.000-07:00

I found this Mojave Airport video on Space.com

Vandenberg Telemetry Ship and Apollo Instrumentation Ships

2009-05-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

The USNS Vandenberg was sunk today in Key West Florida to function as an artificial reef.

I consulted with my fried Ron Streich who was a telemetry engineer on the Apollo Instrumentation Ships. Mr. Streich sent me the following information on the Apollo Instrumentation Ship's and the Vandenberg:

The USNS Vandenberg and USNS Arnold and one other 655 foot long, 18,000 ton converted Liberty ship had big 30 foot antennas that were L-band and S-band radars for tracking non-cooperative targets. These ships were used to monitor Soviet missile launches. The Vandenberg, Arnold, and a third missile tracking radar ship operated until the end of the cold war.

The USNS Redstone, USNS Mercury, and the USNS Vanguard were first used as Apollo Instrumentation Ships (AIS) before becoming Air Force Range Instrumentation Ships (RIS). The USNS Mercury was the first ship to be removed from service in 1970. Mercury was returned to service as a grain carrier. The Redstone was scrapped several years later then the Vanguard was scrapped last.

The three 30 foot dish antennas were Unified S-band with a 20 kW uplink transmitter, a telemetry S-band autotrack antenna and a 30 SATCOM antenna. Each ship had 107 ITT contractor technical crew and 65 Military Sea Transport Service (MSTs) ship crew.

The USNS Mercury home port for several years was Sydney, Australia. Home port of the USNS Redstone was Honolulu, HI. Home port of the USNS Vanguard was Miami, FL then Port Canaveral. When the Mercury was scrapped after Apollo 11, the Redstone was converted to a range tracking ship for the Navy with four new 20 foot telemetry antennas to track salvo launches of Poseiden missiles from a submerged submarine. The Vanguard continued support of Project Apollo for several years then became a range instrumentation ship and finally was scrapped.

The other two Apollo tracking ships were converted Victory ships at 455 feet length and 12,000 tons designated as re-entry ships. One was the USNS Watertown with home port of Honolulu, HI and the other was the USNS Huntsville with home ports of Honolulu, HI and Port Hueneme, CA. Both of these ships had 16 foot Unified S-band antenna, 16-foot CAPRI radar and 20 foot flat ground screen with 24 dipoles P-band telemetry antenna. They had no permanent SATCOM antenna but portable SATCOM systems were sometimes carried for critical low rate data. Both of these ships were transferred to the Air Force for range support after Apollo 7 showed the bigger ships could also support re-entry. Then they were scrapped prior to Apollo 11 to become a cargo ship and the other scrap iron.

Mr Streich details life aboard the Redstone:

"When I was on the Redstone our home port was Honolulu Pier 40 East but we also stopped in Kwajalein frequently for fuel and food and drop off data tapes then sail out again quickly on another mission. Two months at sea before returning to home port for a week or two was typical except when we stopped at Kwajalein overnight and went out again for two months for Apollo 9, 10 and 11 to cover the broad ocean areas. The Redstone did orbital support, computed and transmitted the uplink commands for Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) on all three missions then covered re-entry. Most people think we had a lot of spare time but there was very little spare time until after re-entry because we had passes every 90 minutes with uplink commands, spacecraft telemetry and voice and astronaut telemetry plus playbacks between passes for 24X7 for a lot of overtime. When not doing Apollo tasks we supported other NASA and military launches and satellite passes to earn our pay."

Strange Map

2009-05-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

What if US map had the states renamed with countries with similar GDP's..

From the strange maps website

Thomas P.M. Barnett

2009-05-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

This is a link to a video on C-SPAN BOOK TV.

Thomas P.M. Barnett speaks his new book. Great Powers: America and the World after Bush

Mr. Barnett talks about what faces the United States in the world and how the world will look like in the future.

Headin To Vegas

2009-05-26T12:27:00.001-07:00

We are heading to Vegas..

The space shuttle was in the mate/de-mate building at Edwards.

Cool plan: we watched the General Electric 747 doing engine tests
north of Boron.

The cool car of the day was a new corvette parked next to us in the
parking lot at Arby's in Baker.

And we saw skydivers south of Prime Nevada

X-51

2009-05-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

X-51 article in Flight International.

F-16's land in Mojave.

2009-05-22T06:39:00.001-07:00

Calspan is basing F-16's at Mojave Airport.

The first civilian F-16's

T-38 Crash At Edwards

2009-05-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

5/22/2009 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- An Air Force test pilot student died yesterday when his jet trainer crashed north of Edwards Air Force Base.

Captain Mark P. Graziano, 30, died when the T-38A he was piloting crashed approximately nine miles north of Edwards AFB, near California City. Graziano was assigned to the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards, where he was undergoing training to become a test pilot.

His crew member, Major Lee V. Jones, was injured upon ejecting from the aircraft. He was transported to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, where he is listed in stable condition. Jones, a senior navigator, is also assigned to the USAF Test Pilot School, undergoing test navigator training.

"We are shocked and saddened by this sudden loss and our hearts and prayers go out to Mark's family and loved ones," said Col. Terry M. Luallen, commandant of the USAF Test Pilot School. "We are doing all we can to support Mark's family during this trying time."

At approximately 1:15 p.m. yesterday Edwards AFB was notified that a TPS aircraft had gone down near California City. Emergency responders from the base and Kern County arrived at the scene where they found Jones near the crash site, and transported him to Kern Medical Center. Graziano was pronounced dead at the scene.

A board of officers is investigating the accident. Base officials stress that the accident site may contain hazardous materials released from the crash, and ask that individuals refrain from entering the area until the investigation has been completed, and debris removed from the scene.

Kern County Crime Lab

2009-05-12T23:37:00.001-07:00

Story in the Bakersfield Californian about the accomplishments of the Kern County Crime Lab.

Mothers Day - Prodigal Son Parable in F

2009-05-10T18:12:00.001-07:00

Are preacher at Family Christian Center in SLO recited the Prodigal Son parable in F today:

Here it is:

The Prodigal Son Parable in "F"

Feeling footloose and frisky, a feather-brained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the family finances. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune feasting fabulously with faithless friends.

Finally facing famine and fleeced by his fellows in folly, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famished he fain would have filled his frame with the foraged foods of the fodder fragments left by the filthy farmyard creatures.

'Fooey', he said, 'My father's flunkies fare far fancier,' the frazzled fugitive found feverishly, frankly facing facts. Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding he forthwith fled to his family.

Falling at his father's feet, he floundered forlornly. 'Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favour.' But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching frantically flagged the flunkies. 'Fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.'

But the fugitive's fault-finding frater frowned on the fickle forgiveness of the former folderol. His fury flashed. But fussing was futile, for the far-sighted father figured, such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity?

The fugitive is found! "Unfurl the flags, with fanfares flaring! Let fun and frolic freely flow!" "Former failure is forgotten, folly is forsaken! And forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortitude."

Birthday in Edna Valley

2009-05-09T13:15:00.001-07:00

We are sitting in birthday party in Edna Valley near San Luis Obispo.

The birthday party is for my mother-in-laws nephew who is 80!

We also met Joy's cousins who were evacuated from the fires in Santa
Barbra.

Musical Road and Foxy's

2009-04-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we visited Fox Field in Lancaster. On the way to Fox, we
drove on version 2 of the Lancaster musical road. Previously located
on avenue K in Lancaster, the musical road has been relocated to
Avenue G near Fox.

The musical road was originally created for a Honda Civic television
commercial. It was moved to Avenue G because of complaints from the
folks on Ave K.

The road is located 4 miles west of the Antelope Valley Freeway also
known as Highway 14. The musical road groves are in the left lane.

Okay so after the musical road we drove west to 50th street west and
visited Fox Field

We parked next to the airport administrative building to eat at Foxy's
Landing. Joy had a spinach omlette and I had a cheeseburger. A few
Cessna's landed while we ate.

We left after a good meal and drove past Fox Tanker Base and through
the parking lot of Apollo Park. I noticed the old apollo command
module at the park looked like it was gone.

We then left the airport and drove out to the poppy reserve. Poppy's
were located along the road and were light in the fields.

So now I am off to Cocoa Beach, Florida for series of meetings this
week.

Civic Musical Road

2009-04-08T22:59:00.001-07:00

I was watching fringe and they had the commercial for the Civic Musical Road in Lancaster, CA.

Wikipedia has this writeup about the Musical Road "The Civic Musical Road was built on Avenue K in Lancaster, California, United States, on 5 September 2008.^[6] Covering a quarter mile stretch of road between 60th Street West and 70th Street West, the Musical Road used grooves cut into the asphalt to replicate the William Tell Overture. It was paved over on 23 September due to nearby residents complaining to the city council about noise levels;^[7] but after further complaints from city residents about its removal, work began to recreate it on 15 October 2008 on Avenue G between 30th Street West and 40th Street West, two miles away from the nearest residence.^[8] This road is named after the Honda Civic. It opened two days later.^[9] The new section on Avenue G is only in the far left lane of the westbound side of the road.

Weather Watch: It was clear and cool this morning. Rain clouds loomed but no rain High of 60 deg F and Low of 41 deg F

Airplane and Car Watch: On the way to a meeting at Edwards this morning two F-16's fly by the parking lot.

R Rex was on NBC News

2009-04-06T19:16:00.001-07:00

Lancaster was on NBC news. Lee Cowan reported on the cities plans to hand out gift cards to car buyers. He interviewed R Rex Parris.

Here is the link and the story is called "Cities go local for recession solutions"

The Rosamond Car and Plane Report: Yesterday I saw a nice red 65 Corvette and a blue Ford GT40 at the Golden Cantina Restaurant.

Weather: HIgh 77 and Low 45. It was a clear day in Rosamond.

Lancaster on America's Most Wanted

2009-04-04T22:11:00.001-07:00

Unfortunately Lancaster stared on America's Most Wanted tonight for this fugitive.

It looks like John Walsh did some outdoor shots at Apollo Park.

STOL-MTD Airplane Retired

2009-03-25T20:02:00.001-07:00

NASA retired the NF-15B 837 after flying it for the last time Jan 30 2009. The AV press has the story here.

I was lucky enough to attend many missions where this aircraft was flown as a research project at AFFTC in the early 1990's.

A Bad Day At Edwards

2009-03-25T19:37:00.001-07:00

It was a bad day at Edwards when of the test aircraft crashed killing the pilot. The story is located here on the Edwards web site.

Our prayers are with Mr. Cooley's family.

Spring Cleaning

2009-03-23T07:05:00.001-07:00

We spent the weekend spring cleaning in Rosamond. My yard guy Curtis hauled off a ton of stuff for me to the dump.

Then we moved more stuff from Lancaster to Rosamond.

I also got a new satellite system from Dish Network installed Friday and Saturday.

I saw the MD-11 crash in Tokyo on T.V. Back in 1990 I was lucky to see the first flight of the MD-11 in Long Beach. I was working on the C-17 project at the time. We were also able to look at the product showroom for the MD-11 which had all the cabin configuration options that McDonnell Douglas could show perspective customers.

History of Tetris

2009-03-15T22:07:00.001-07:00

I saw this history of tetris video on On Networks.com. It was sent to my Tivo, but the video was munched. So i went to the website.

It was a good history..

Back in 1989/1990 when Tetris was the rage, I saw someone play Tetris for about a year in a office I worked in. That is 40 hours a week for a year.

I think today's business IT world would make this nearly impossible.

We ate lunch at Lahaina;s in San Luis Obispo. It is located across the parking lot from Trader Joe's. Good fish and chips.

SLO Sunday

2009-03-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

We made it back from Alamo town. After a short stop at In and Out in
Santa Clarita and dropping a fellow traveler in Rosamond we drove over
to the coast.

Down On The River

2009-03-09T21:53:00.001-07:00

I am back in San Antonio. I went down to the Riverwalk and ate at Landry's. I used the San Antonio city bus to get down to the riverwalk from the hotel.

I talked to a lady on the United/Skywest flight out who needed a lot of help in her life. I hope she gets it. I am praying for her.

Enterprise Rental Car rented me a new Nissan Altima. I like the gauge cluster, key fob, and the start button. The bad part was I waited a long time for the car and ended up being late to a meeting tonight.

Final corporate finance class

2009-03-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

Well it's the final night of my corporate finance class at Webster
university extention at Edwards.

Finals night and a week off before I start another class.

Solar Plant and not Airport in Palmdale

2009-02-27T19:30:00.001-08:00

The L.A. Times has this article about a possible solar plant at Palmdale Airport. And so continues the saga of waste with Palmdale Airport. Los Angeles spent $100 million dollars in the 1970's to buy 17,750 of land. Much of this land was taken by eminent domain actions. And then the airport was never built. Much of the land sits fenced and vacant. So of the land is leased to farmers.

On March 3, Los Angeles residents are voting on Measure B. Measure B requires the city to produce 400 Megawatts of power clean energy by 2014. The solar plant at in Palmdale Airport would provide 25% of this power or 100 Megawatts.

After 30 years still no airport on the land purchased by Los Angeles.

An air terminal was built at the adjacent Plant 42, and according to the times eight airlines have come and gone. It is not economical to operate the small air terminal at Palmdale when Burbank airport is less then an hour by car south. And LAX is one hour if one can use the car pool lane. Los Angeles is handing the certificate to operate in Palmdale back to the FAA.

My own employer will not pay for flights out of Palmdale unless they cost less then the price of a rental car back and forth to LAX plus the round trip airfare from LAX. The air fare from LAX is often 1/2 the cost of Burbank.

When United Airlines was being subsidized to fly from Palmdale, the airline only flew to San Francisco. Thus it might require up to three flights to get where you needed to go. Generally we fly out to the east coast. So after three flights it is late at night before the destination is reached. By assumption was they only flew to Palmdale to obtain the Governments money and when that money stopped so did the flights.

So the question is what needs to be done next? Who would drive up from L.A. to fly from Palmdale when they can go to LAX, Burbank, Long Beach or Ontario down the street instead. Folks in Antelope Valley are going to drive to L.A. for a lower airfare. Maybe the solar plant is the best option.

Alligator in College Station

2009-02-27T18:42:00.001-08:00

Ate Cajun food in College Station Texas. Had some chewy Alligator and Cat Fish. Headed back to L.A. through Austin tomorrow.

College Station Texas and the Cove

2009-02-26T21:27:00.001-08:00

I have been working at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas the last three days.

We drove from San Antonio up to College Station Texas.

I used the GPS in the Iphone to find the hotel.

A real nice Residence inn in Bryan Texas.

In San Antonio I stayed at the Embassy Suites

Last night I listened to the University of the Incarnate Word College Jazz Ensemble at the Cove

Flew to San Antonio

2009-02-23T21:58:00.001-08:00

It was raining when I left Rosamond for San Antonio.

The flight out was uneventful.

Speckled Trout with its fins removed

2009-02-20T14:14:00.001-08:00

Look my first photo!

I saw this story about the speckled trout airplane being moved to Lackland AFB for display.

Speckled Trout was located at Edwards AFB for much of its career.

Here is the story of its departure from Edwards. According to this story it was supposed to stay in the museum at Edwards, I guess that did not work out.

Here is the link to an old air force story about Speckled Trout hosted on the Federation of American Scientists site.

Fixing my Itunes Library on my day off.

2009-02-20T11:57:00.001-08:00

I am spending my day off in Rosamond.

It is a clear desert day with the outside air tempreture currently 50 F when I am writing this.

Recently I started trying to make my Itunes Library less disorderly.

I have been using three tools.

Jaikoz audio tagger. Jaikoz will take a folder full of mp3 files and repair the ID3 tags in each file, it adds album art, and lyrics to the file. The program does this by checking data bases on the web which it uses to map the songs.

In addition to Jaikoz, I have used Musicbrainz Picard in the past. I have been using both of these software producs to clean up music files before I imported them into Itunes.

Finally I downloaded Tunup which directly integrates with Itunes. It was not free but seems to work very well. Tunup is integrated directly into Itunes. You can drag and drop songs from your playlists into the sidebar setup by Tuneup.

Articles on why we need the F-22.

2009-02-16T10:58:00.001-08:00

I saw this article called the last Ace in the Atlantic Monthly by Marc Bowden. I read Mr. Bowden's books about the capture of Pablo Escobar and Battle in Somalia. Also when I was in SLO over the weekend I saw this page called Why America Needs the F-22 on the Australian Air Power website.

Rudder Trim Caused DC-3 Crash

2009-02-16T10:21:00.001-08:00

Story on Mojave DC-3 crash from Flight Global

Iranian Satallite, Space Station Vibrations, and Iridium Collision.

2009-02-16T00:32:00.001-08:00

Jonathon's Space Report an online newsletter covered the Iranian satellite launch, problems on the ISS, and the Iridium collision with the Russian satellite.

Beating The Storm

2009-02-16T00:12:00.001-08:00

We went to Carls Jr in SLO and then church at the First Assembly. After chuch, we raced back to Lancaster from San Luis Obispo to beat a storm moving into southern California. We made a couple of stops. One in Pismo Beach and the other in Maricopa. We stopped in Pismo to get a diet coke at McDonalds. The stop in Maricopa was a bathroom break. Maricopa is an old oil town in south west Kern County. Maricopa sits next to the Midway-Sunset oil field, the third largest oil field in the United States. One thing to watch for is the speed trap in Maricopa. The Maricopa cop is always looking for someone to blow through the 35 mph speed limit in town.

SLO Valentine's Saturday and What The Heck an X-15?

2009-02-16T00:06:00.001-08:00

We went and watched the movie Gran Torino in San Luis Obispo on Valentines Saturday and then we walked around town. My father had a Gran Torino in the 1970's, not as cool as the one in the movie. I am lucky to own an M-1 Gurand. A very surprise ending to the movie that I will not ruin.

Along with the obligatory stop at Barns and Noble downtown, we went to the Ross store.

While walking back to the car I spotted a large X-15 model haniging in the Decades vintage clothing store. It was big probably 6 foot long made of wood with what looked like an attachment for a pole mount. It looked like it was made of wood and had some damage on the leading edge of the wing.

It was Valentines so we visited See's Candy which was very busy. Also we bought a new Prince tennis racket at the Big 5 sporting goods store.

Joy's brother wanted Kentucky Fried Chicken for his birthday dinner. No KFC exists in SLO. So we drove to what we thought was a KFC in Arroyo Grande, but it had gone out of business. So finally we drove to Santa Maria and found the KFC on main street. A 50 mile trip for chicken. This trip would have been a bigger hassel if we did not have the iphone and google maps.

A Rainy Day in Santa Maria

2009-02-14T09:15:00.001-08:00

I spent Friday working in Santa Maria . It rained all morning but the weather cleared in time to have lunch at the Office. The office is owned by members of the Deene family who used to work on the IFDAPS telemetry processor at Computer Science Corporation. IFDAPS was used long ago at Edwards to process telemetry from test aircraft.

I stayed again at the Holiday Inn in Santa Maria. The Portabelllo restaurant at this Holiday inn has a really nice seafood salad and the best french fries have eaten in a long time.

Santa Maria has its share of closed up retail businesses like everywhere else.

After work we went with my future in-laws to the Quarterdeck for fish in Arroyo Grande.

Latter we went to Smart and Final to pick up supplies for are church up here. and the Borders Book Store in San Luis Obispo.

This was the first time I visited the Borders store in SLO. Normally I visit Barnes and Noble downtown. The borders is real nice and is located next to Best Buy in the Madonna shopping center.

I cashed in a giftcard from Christmas on a book from Cisco called Cisco Networking Simplified.

We ended the day at Fosters Freeze "a california tradition" where we split a hot fudge sundae. We have a Fosters back in Rosamond as well.

SYS 282

2009-02-12T18:53:00.001-08:00

I attended a Air Force Institute of Technology Class this week at Edwards called Systems 282 Applied Systems Engineering.

This was a pretty good class.

Earlier in the week we had a little snow storm in Rosamond on Monday night. Snow now covers the mountains that surround the Antelope Valley.

This morning we made a donut run to Donuts Plus on Ave K and 10th St East in Lancaster. Joy was buying Donuts for her office..

More on the NTPS DC-3

2009-02-08T00:09:00.001-08:00

I saw this write-up on the Ares Blog on the NTPS DC-3 Crash at Mojave Airport

Air Tanker 124 in Warbirds International Magazine

2009-02-07T11:52:00.001-08:00

Warbirds International magazine has an article this month on the PB4Y-2 Tanker 124. Tanker 124 has operated out of Fox Tanker Base in Lancaster along with other PB4Y-2's Charlie 30 and Tanker 123. In the 1980's I worked at Fox and loaded all three aircraft with fire retardant. The Goleta Air and Space Museam has a page of Privateer photos.

In 2002, Tanker 123 had a structural failure and crashed while fighting a fire in Colorado. A photo from the Denver Post of the aircraft crashing is here. The PB4Y2's have been grounded since that time. Hawkins and Powers when faced with this crash and the later crash of a C-130 folded and the aircraft are being auctioned. Yanks Air Museum in Chino acquired Tanker 124 and flew the aircraft to California from Greybull Wyoming in 2008.

Breakfast at Jackie's

2009-02-07T11:31:00.001-08:00

The restaurant we had breakfast at Friday was Jackie's Cafe on the corner of Ave L and 10th Street West in Lancaster. This was the second time we had breakfast at Jackie's. The soufflé omelets are very good, During the two visits I had the two southwestern style omelets.

Rainy Friday in Lancaster

2009-02-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

I am starting my blog again...

I will work to keep it updated more frequently.

It was a rainy day off for me from Edward's. We met some friends for breakfast. I forgot the name of the resturant, but will post information about it soon.

We picked up some fruit in at Ben's Corner and also shopped at the WINCO Grocery Story. Later we visited Barnes and Noble in Palmdale. I picked up the book on the Northrop P-61 Blackwidow by Jeff Kollin . The P-61 was a night fighter deployed by the Army Air Force in World War II. I have been interested in this aircraft since I saw it at the P-61 at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton in 2007.

While at B&N, we connected to the AT&T Wifi access point for the first time with my iPhone, that was nice. I also connected to the free wifi at Edward's Air Force Base BX food court Thursday.

I am also amazed at how well the shazam application works on the iphone. Shazam uses the microphone in the iPhone to record part of a song being played either from your car radio or in this case the background music at B&N. Shazam then matches this tag to a database on the web to determine what song it is. This application works really well.

The unemployment news was not good and the politicians in Washington don't know what to do. State Employee's being furloughed without pay is no good.

This article was in the AV Press about folks from the Test Pilot School helping out at Park View School in Lancaster. Park View is a middle school in Lancaster.

The National Test Pilot School DC-3 was damaged in a crash on Wednesday. The video from KERO Bakersfield is here .

It could snow here tonight.

Riverside CountyAttempt Murder/Kidnap suspect arrested in Rosamond

2008-08-24T17:27:00.000-07:00

More news on the murder kidnap suspect that was arrested in Rosamond Saturday from the Bakersfield Californian